For drinks giant Suntory, however, sensing that there’s at least some sustenance in what one is supping is obviously nowhere near as good as seeing it, so Capsela is crammed full of capsules, that in turn are packed with a veritable plethora of vitamins — making it both wholesome and hypnotic.

Sort of.

And, what’s more, it doesn’t taste too bad either, in its weak, lemon-like way. The only problem being, for me at least, is that the capsules remind me of fish eggs, which I’m not overly fond off at the best off times, and especially not when bunged in a beverage. Otherwise it’s fairly good, in a floating fish egg fashion.

Young Keiko Kitagawa on the other hand seemingly has no such concerns.

Due to the city’s huge population, it’s perhaps not all that surprising to find that Tokyo doesn’t exactly boast a plentiful supply of playgrounds, but unfortunately, it’s far from a case of quality rather than quantity, as these previously posted wretched recreational areas featuring maimed animals, monsters and motorways amply prove. And now, to further add to this partnership of pitifulness, is this sorry looking sight.

Yet to be fair, the rather dirty and despondent nature of this â€˜plaything’ is arguably countered somewhat by the convenient location of a nearby lavatory, although admittedly its far from private positioning could also be deemed as detrimental.

However, one thing is for certain, the choice of an elephant was particularly pertinent considering the giant mammals’ famed feats of memory, as any child using this coarse concrete slide will remember their copious amounts of chafing for many moons to come.

With digital cameras of one description or another now commonplace, there’s the ever increasing problem of what to do with all the resultant pictures — bar printing off the odd one and leaving the rest on the computer until its hard disk dies and neatly nixes the problem.

An issue that Japanese company Sha@Lark hopes to solve with its Purimen Gurumi (ãƒ—ãƒªé¢ãã‚‹ã¿) effigies.

A product that allows people to cut the faces out of pictures and have them placed onto disturbing looking dolls.

Beastly abominations that arguably make the horrors of hard disk failure a little less worrying.

An incredible achievement that has prompted Takashi Murayama, a professor involved in the programme, to proudly pronounce, â€œWe’ve experienced a taste of reality in conversation with cetaceans. In the future, we may be able to exchange greetings with them.â€

However, rumours that things have already gone way beyond simple salutations, with the beluga allegedly asking, â€œWhen are you going to stop hunting my fellow whales as everybody knows your claims of â€˜scientific research’ are utter claptrap?â€, have been strenuously denied.